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A Brief History of Jewish Studies Collections at Johns Hopkins University
(Above: The Oriental Seminary in McCoy Hall at Johns Hopkins University's original campus in Mount Vernon (circa 1915). Used by kind permission of the Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University)
The Jewish Studies collection in the Sheridan Libraries goes back to the foundation of Johns Hopkins University in 1876. Even before the formal creation of the Oriental Seminary in 1883 (the forerunner to today’s Department of Near Eastern Studies, the first to award the PhD in Semitics in the United States),[1] Johns Hopkins’ first librarian, Thomas C. Murray (who was also an associate of Semitics on the original faculty), began to assemble bibliographic materials in 1876 in Hopkins Hall on the original Mount Vernon campus.[2] These holdings were complemented (but purposefully not duplicated)[3] by the holdings in Semitic philology, Hebrew Bible, and related fields at the nearby Peabody Institute Library, which would later become part of Johns Hopkins University in 1982 as the George Peabody Library.[4]
After outgrowing Hopkins Hall, most books belonging to the various seminaries at Johns Hopkins moved across the street to McCoy Hall in 1894.[5] As was the case in Hopkins Hall and the Peabody Institute, the collections in McCoy Hall were seen as so important to the work of the seminaries that classes were regularly held in their midst.[6] By the beginning of the 20th century, the Oriental Seminary could already boast of several major collections pertaining to Jewish Studies, including a library of more than 4,000 works from the estate of renowned Orientalist August Dillmann,[7] a rabbinical library of more than 300 works donated by Leopold Strouse,[8] and a collection of 73 Jewish ceremonial objects (including some sacred texts) donated by Henry Sonneborn.[9] The Dillmann and Strouse Collections have since been absorbed mostly intact into the Sheridan Libraries. The Sonneborn Collection has been partially reconstituted at the Smokler Center for Jewish Life at 3109 N. Charles Street[10] across the street from the Homewood campus, to which all library materials from the Mount Vernon campus would eventually relocate in 1915 following the completion of Gilman Hall[11] (whose namesake, Daniel C. Gilman, served as president of the American Oriental Society[12] in addition to serving as Johns Hopkins University’s inaugural president).
Whereas the research collections in Hopkins and McCoy Halls were spread out across the various seminaries, the collections in Gilman Hall came to be shelved together in the center of the building (albeit with some separation by discipline),[13] just across from what is known today as the Hutzler Reading Room. All the while, the regular acquisition of Jewish Studies research materials for the Oriental Seminary and related humanities departments continued steadily through the postwar period.[14] These include some exceptional donations, such as several historic bibles (chief among them, editions by Estienne, Plantin, and Kennicott) in the John Work Garrett Library of Evergreen House in North Baltimore, which was officially transferred to Johns Hopkins in 1952.[15] More enigmatic are the receipt between 1949 and 1950 of upwards of 45 books saved by Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc., which oversaw the distribution of more than 500,000 Jewish books that had been stolen by the Nazis and whose owners could not be located after World War II.[16] Despite the wishes of the JCR (which was comprised of such luminaries in the field of Jewish Studies as Salo Baron, Hannah Arendt, and Gershom Scholem), Johns Hopkins did not acknowledge its JCR books as such with bookplates or any other identifying information in the library catalog.[17] For this reason, librarians have so far been unable to determine which JCR books Johns Hopkins received between 1949 and 1950 (though at least three JCR books were acquired decades later through other donations).[18] An extensive search of both the Johns Hopkins Archives and the Salo Baron papers at Stanford University has regrettably failed to yield any leads.[19]
With the completion of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library (MSEL) in 1964, nearly all the books corresponding with the Oriental Seminary (renamed the Department of Near Eastern Studies by 1967)[20] eventually moved to MSEL just a few hundred feet across the quad from Gilman Hall. Most came to be concentrated on D-level in the stacks and later in the nearby Eisenberg Seminar Room. This period also saw the push for the creation of a Jewish Studies program independent of Near Eastern Studies, which has continued to maintain a focus on Hebrew Bible and other aspects of ancient Judaism (among others). Following a transformative donation of five million dollars from the Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Charitable Foundation, the Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Jewish Studies Program became a part of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University in 2002.[21] The Stulman program helped to galvanize the establishment of numerous endowed funds in the Sheridan Libraries (seven of which currently exist as of 2024) to support the acquisition of bibliographical materials pertaining specifically to Jewish Studies. The Jewish Studies collection has also been greatly enriched by the purchase and donation of several major libraries amassed by leading scholars of Jewish Studies and Jewish institutions[22]:
- Mordkhe and Charne Schaechter
- More than 9,000 volumes from the personal library of Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter (1927-2007), noted Yiddish lexicographer and lecturer in Yiddish at Columbia University.
- Zionist Archives and Library & Wyman Institute
- More than 8,000 books and archival documents that belonged to the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in Washington, D.C.
- The Rabbi Dr. Azriel Rosenfeld Judaica Collection
- More than 2,000 volumes from the collection of Azriel Rosenfeld (1931-2004), which are particularly strong in Rabbinics.
- Arthur Hertzberg
- More than 7,000 volumes on Jewish life and Judaism from the library of Rabbi Dr. Arthur Hertzberg (1921-2006), a JHU alumnus, civil rights advocate, former president of the American Jewish Congress, and former vice president of the World Jewish Congress.
- Moshe Pelli
- Several hundred books from the personal library of professor and novelist Dr. Moshe Pelli. This collection is especially strong in modern Hebrew literature.
Reinvigorated by the formal establishment of the PhD program in Jewish Languages and Literatures in 2022, collection development in Jewish Studies has continued to thrive at Johns Hopkins. Even as most materials comprising the Jewish Studies collection at Johns Hopkins have been relocated to offsite storage for the duration of the ongoing renovation of the Eisenhower Library, the Hutzler Reading Room in Gilman Hall has subsumed a large assemblage of reference works from D-level in the Eisenhower Library, including the Eisenberg Seminar Room. Here, scholars can avail themselves of core research collections for Classics, History of Art, and Near Eastern Studies (including Semitic Philology and Hebrew Bible) for private study and use at the seminar table for class, much in the way their forebears in Hopkins Hall and McCoy Hall did more than a century ago. This exciting interplay of innovation and tradition that have long been the hallmark of Jewish Studies at Johns Hopkins portends an even more exciting future as the program and related fields become more collaborative and interdisciplinary on the threshold of the University’s sesquicentennial.
(Above: The south wing of the Hutzler Reading Room, Gilman Hall)
By Mackenzie S. Zalin, PhD, MSLS
Librarian for Classics, Comparative Thought and Literature, Jewish Studies, and Modern Languages and Literatures
Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
mzalin1@jhu.edu
Last updated: August 8, 2024
[1] “About.” Near Eastern Studies, 4 Aug. 2023, neareast.jhu.edu/about/.
[2] French, John C. A history of the university founded by Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1946, pp. 206-207. For a record of the holdings, see the Catalog of the John W. McCoy Library, 1875-1880, Box 3, Johns Hopkins University Library Acquisitions department records, RG-03-013, Special Collections, Johns Hopkins University. Though the organization of the constituent six volumes makes parsing materials relevant to Jewish Studies difficult (not being organized by seminary or even subject in every volume), one does often find such works under “Philosophy, Religion, and Ecclesiastical History” and “History--Ancient” in volumes 3 and 4 respectively.
[3] Kalisch, Philip Arthur. The Enoch Pratt Free Library: A Social History. Metuchen, N. J: Scarecrow Press, 1969, p. 38.
[4] Schmidt, John C. Johns Hopkins : Portrait of a University. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 1986, p. 198.
[5] French, John C. A history of the university founded by Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, 1946, p. 210-211. I wish to thank my colleague at Johns Hopkins, Jim Gillispie, for helping me better understand the topography of the original JHU campus in Mount Vernon between Eutaw and Howard Streets (see e.g., Insurance Maps of Baltimore, Maryland (Volume One 1879, Sheet 7; https://fims.historicalinfo.com/FIMSSD.aspx?m=03573_01_1879) and Atlas of the City of Baltimore, MD (Baltimore Topographic Commission atlas 1897; https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/items/3d6d9905-dcde-4435-9fc5-11fbc52245a4))
[6] On McCoy and Hopkins, see French, John C. A history of the university founded by Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, 1946, pp. 210-211.
[7] Dillmann, August. Catalog der Bibliothek von August Dillmann. Berlin, 1895. On the life of August Dillmann, see e.g., Garber, Zev. "Dillmann, August." Encyclopaedia Judaica, edited by Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, 2nd ed., vol. 5, Macmillan Reference USA, 2007, pp. 661-662. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2587505221/GVRL?u=balt85423&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=e8428ea7. Accessed 18 July 2024.
[8] Strouse, Leopold. Catalogue of the Leopold Strouse Rabbinical Library Giving a List of the Accessions by Annual Gift from Mr. Strouse during the Years 1896, 1897, 1898 and 1899. [Baltimore, MD], 1900.
[9] Sonneborn, Henry. Catalogue of Collection of Jewish Ceremonial Objects Presented by Henry Sonneborn, February Eighteenth, 1901. [publisher not identified], 1901.
[10] “A Treasure Comes Home.” The JHU Gazette, 4 Jan. 2010, gazette.jhu.edu/2010/01/04/a-treasure-comes-home/.
[11] Sharkey, Robert P. Johns Hopkins: Centennial Portrait of a University. Johns Hopkins University, 1975, p. 13.
[12] Michael T. Benson. Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022, p. 216.
[13] See French, 1946, p. 214: “The essence of the design was to make each floor of the structure a library department complete in itself and to include with each unit of the stacks ample space for tables at which graduate students might do their reading and writing a few steps away from the books of most significance for them. Thus on one floor, fully cataloged, equipped with their own periodicals and reference works, and supervised by their own library attendants, were placed the books in the social sciences, while the seminary rooms and the offices of the professors of history, economics, and politics were near at hand and on the same level. The modern languages and literatures including English and a general reference collection placed on the walls of a main reading room occupied another floor, and a third self-sufficient department brought together in the same way the ancient languages and archaeology, philosophy, and education. Book-lined seminary rooms were not a part of the scheme, for the system of classification required that every book not a treasure-room item or in a very special collection should take its appropriate place on shelves where anybody should be able to find it.” See also Boppana, Samhi. "Gilman Hall: Past and Present.” The Johns Hopkins Newsletter, 2023 Mar 09. https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2023/03/gilman-hall-past-and-present.
[14] For reasons unknown, accessions books between 1909 and 1946 are not available in Special Collections at Johns Hopkins (see boxes 12-13, Johns Hopkins University Library Acquisitions department records, RG 03.013, Special Collections, Johns Hopkins University). Box 15 in the same collection does, however, contain an assortment of microfilm rolls containing individual acquisition records for some works. The review of these materials is ongoing.
[15] Abbott, James Archer, et al. Evergreen: The Garrett Family, Collectors and Connoisseurs. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017, p. 107.
[16] Gallas, Elisabeth, and Alex Skinner. A mortuary of books: the rescue of Jewish culture after the Holocaust. NYU Press, 2019, p. 6. For a concise overview of the JCR, see e.g., Herman, Dana. "Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. (JCR)." Encyclopaedia Judaica, edited by Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, 2nd ed., vol. 11, Macmillan Reference USA, 2007, p. 289. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2587510131/GVRL?u=balt85423&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=0dbaafb1. Accessed 16 July 2024.
[17] See p. 246 in Herman, D. (2009). Hashavat Avedah: A History of Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc (Order No. NR66315). ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (762373830). https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/i-hashavat-avedah-history-jewish-cultural/docview/762373830/se-2:
“JCR had a bookplate produced and asked that recipient organizations paste them into each of their volumes...For various unexplained reasons not all of them complied. When they did, it was done much later than expected with the consequence that not all of the books were properly marked” (p. 246 in, Herman, D. (2009). Hashavat Avedah: A History of Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc (Order No. NR66315). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (762373830). https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/i-hashavat-avedah-history-jewish-cultural/docview/762373830/se-2)
[18] See the JCR books that were acquired through the Rosenfeld Collection (https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/permalink/01JHU_INST/t3c16/alma991040298629707861) and the Wyman Collection (https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/permalink/01JHU_INST/t3c16/alma991034793089707861), both of which are discussed in more detail below. One other JCR book (now missing) is not recorded as having belonged to a specific collection (https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/permalink/01JHU_INST/t3c16/alma991004780319707861).
[19] See Stanford University Libraries. Department of Special Collections & University Archives. Salo Wittmayer Baron papers, circa 1900-1980. M0580. Series 4. Box 232. Folder 10. I am grateful to Eitan Kensky of Stanford University for referring me to these files. I’m also grateful to Elaine Mael at Towson University for pointing me to additional resources on the JCR.
[20] The 1967 circulars for the 1967-1968 academic year are the first to have “Near Eastern Studies” in place of the “Oriental Seminary” for both undergraduate and graduate schools (The Johns Hopkins University Circular: Undergraduate Programs: 1967-1968: Catalogue Issue, New Series No. 5, Whole No. 727, p. 127; The Johns Hopkins University Circular: Graduate Programs: 1967-1968: Catalogue Issue, New Series No. 7 Whole No. 729, p. 135). The 1966 circulars for the 1966-1967 academic year list “Near Eastern Studies” for the undergraduate school and the “Oriental Seminary” for the graduate school (The Johns Hopkins University Circular: Undergraduate Programs: 1966-1967: Catalogue Issue, New Series 1966, No. 7, Whole No. 722, p. 127; The Johns Hopkins University Circular: Graduate Programs: 1966-1967: Catalogue Issue, New Series 1966, No. 5, Whole No. 720, p. 154).
[21] Homewood, Glenn Small. “Jewish Studies Program Established with Gift.” The Johns Hopkins University Gazette, vol. 32, no. 2. September 9, 2002. https://pages.jh.edu/gazette/2002/09sep02/09jewish.html. See also MacGillis, A. (2002/09/10/, 2002 Sep 10). Hopkins plans a program in Jewish studies ; Stulman foundation donates $5 million to school for curriculum; `A community commitment'; Creating religious major marks a departure from institution's tradition: [FINAL Edition]. The Baltimore Sun https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/hopkins-plans-program-jewish-studies-stulman/docview/406529686/se-2
[22] Nota bene: Some of the descriptions for these collections have been reproduced verbatim from the collection development statement for Jewish Studies which I also authored: https://www.library.jhu.edu/about/sheridan-libraries-collection-philosophy/jewish-studies/.